This is what I just IMed to my coworker. I’ll let you Google that last word yourself.

But basically today was one of those days when everything just went sideways. I manage a large team of people. Well, large for me, anyway. And though it may seem to any individual member of my team that when something unusual happens in his or her process that it’s not a big deal, and indeed if it was just that one part of the overall production that went awry it would not be a big deal, it turns out that almost always everyone’s process goes awry on the same day at the same time.

Hence, FUBAR for me.

But the question I have is, what do you do when things go sideways for you? Do you throw nutrition out the window and eat cookies all day because you “deserve” them? Do you skip out on your workout because you “can’t get away” now? I had both those discussions with my internal voice today. There’s a big container of gluten-free cookies I baked yesterday for Winslow sitting right on our kitchen counter. And despite the fact that I live .4 miles from our gym, I entertained the idea of being “too busy” for that, as well.

But I didn’t eat any cookies today.
And in fifteen minutes I’m leaving to meet my husband for a workout.

FUBAR or not, I stuck to my long term plan for health and fitness. In truth, I’ll feel better for it at the end of the day and no matter how much muck-raking I did in the thirty minutes it’s going to take me to work out, it wouldn’t have fixed everything that went sideways today anyway. So I’m sticking with things that have positive impact and saying “no” to the little voice that wants some strange satisfaction out of derailing me. Because FUBAR happens. And you can either use it as a recurring excuse to not do what you said you were going to do, or you can use it as an opportunity to grow stronger.

Your life is bigger than this day’s events. You are bigger than this day’s events.

Becca Borawski served as Program Director at CFLA for seven years and is now part of the extended coaching family. She is the managing editor for Breaking Muscle, a website designed for real athletes and real coaches. She lives in Portland, OR and is most likely preparing a paleo meal at this moment.